Small Wonders
by xcaits27
Summary: A collection of flashfic and drabbles based on prompts.
1. Handshake

**Disclaimer:** Everything belongs to JKR, I'm just borrowing for a while.

**AN:** This was written in January 2006 for the LJ community _hd_flashfic_. The prompt: Handshake. The idea of a flashfic is to be written in one sitting, and around or under 1000 words. This one took me 20 minutes and is just over 500 words.

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It's amazing how a person's life can be summed up. When one looks back, they see their life played out as a series of events. Some independent, others interconnected, but they all worked to create the big picture of life.

Draco gazed down at the sleeping form beside him and couldn't help smile as he reached out to run his fingers through his partner's messy hair. He liked moments like this, when only he was awake and had time to let his thoughts run free. Laying there in bed, he could clearly see the events that brought him to this specific time and place, and he wouldn't change any of them.

Two such events stood out clearer than any others: one, when he had offered his hand in friendship and been refused, and the other when he in turn was offered a hand in friendship and accepted…

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Years had passed. School was finished, a war had been fought and won – or lost, depending on which side you found yourself – and everyone was settling down with families and jobs. Draco's life had been in upheaval for many years, and was only now just starting to settle down again. He certainly didn't expect that calm to be disrupted by the appearance of a certain messy, black haired man at the pub where he was eating lunch.

He knew Harry had noticed him, saw it in the slight hesitation before he walked fully through the doorway. What he didn't know was what Harry would do. They didn't exactly hate each other anymore, but they weren't friends either. As it turned out, Harry did nothing. He sat down, ordered lunch and ate. Draco himself was finished before Harry, and so he paid his bill and left. What he had been nervous about occurred when he was outside the pub. He had been about to walk off down the street in the direction of his flat, when Harry came outside.

"Malfoy, wait."

Draco paused, and turned around. "Yes, Potter?"

Harry shifted nervously and his hand strayed to push his glasses up his nose, a habit – which Draco would discover in later years – that showed itself when he was nervous.

"I just wanted to say…no hard feelings, for all those years at Hogwarts? I mean, I know we're not really enemies anymore, and…ah, well, we seem to get along fine outside of school, and I was thinking..." he awkwardly stuck his hand out, "friends?"

Draco stared at the hand for a moment, and his mind immediately flashed back to that day all those years ago at Hogwarts when he had been denied. Was that where things had gone wrong? After pausing only a moment, he accepted.

"Friends." He said, as he shook Harry Potter's hand.

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Draco grinned as he recalled the years following that day, the friendship and the subsequent relationship. His fingers stilled in Harry's hair, and he placed a kiss on his lover's forehead before settling back down under the covers. To think that his life could be viewed in two distinct moments, both of them a handshake.


	2. Dragon

**Disclaimer:** Everything belongs to JKR, I'm just borrowing for a while.

**AN:** This was written in February 2006 for the LJ community _hd_flashfic_. Prompt: dragon.

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Harrry stared at the shops around him in dismay. Draco's birthday was only days away, and Harry had no idea what to get the boy. So far, he'd spent most of his Hogsmeade weekend wandering around in his Invisibility Cloak trying to come up with a present for the person who has everything. He was getting cold, tired and hungry and he couldn't help thinking that presents were overrated, anyway.

He had given up and was about to head to the Three Broomsticks to meet Ron and Hermione when something in the window of a tiny shop caught his eye. The shop was new in town, it carried a mix of muggle and wizard merchandise. Stopping, Harry walked towards the shop to get a better look at what it was that had managed to grab his attention. When he finally saw what it was, his jaw dropped. _No, I wouldn't! It would be an invitation to have an argument, and that's something I don't need this close to the end of school. I wouldn't._ For some reason, his legs did not seem to agree with his mind, and he walked into the store, shedding his cloak as he went. _Oh, I would._

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Harry spent the next few days alternating between thinking nervously about the wrapped birthday present stashed under his bed, and trying to fend off Draco's incessant question on what he would be receiving for his birthday. The boy just didn't understand the meaning of a surprise.

Draco's birthday finally arrived, and Harry sat on pins and needles all day. _He's going to hate it, I know he is. Why, why do I do these things?!_ Draco had recently started trying to guess what he was going to get, and with every guess Harry felt his chest fill with dread. _He's going to hate it._

By the time midnight rolled around, Harry was all but shaking. Grabbing his cloak, map and the birthday gift he quickly – but silently – fled his room and tiptoed out of the common room. The trip to the Room of Requirement was uneventful, and when Harry arrived he breathed a sigh of relief to find that Draco wasn't there yet, and that Dobby had delivered the cake and Butterbeer (as per agreement). Tossing his cloak and map on top of the mantle (carefully avoiding the fire) he then set the present down beside the cake and plopped down on the sofa to wait.

Surprisingly, he didn't have to wait very long. Within only a moment, the door eased open and Draco slipped inside, he face lighting up in a smile when he saw Harry, the cake and the gift. He rushed over to the couch and sank down beside Harry.

"You got me a cake, too?"

Harry just nodded and motioned to the gift. "You can find out what I got you, now."

Draco grinned and scooped the present up off the table. He ripped into the green and gold paper, letting it fall to the floor, and peeled off the Spellotape holding the box closed. Harry stared into the fire as he felt Draco go still beside him. He looked back to Draco just in time to see him reach into the box and remove the little green and silver stuffed dragon.

"Harry…what…?"

Harry fidgeted. "Well, it's…it's a dragon for my Dragon. Everyone should have a dragon to keep them happy." He smiled slightly. "I know mine does me."

Draco just stared at him. Harry was so busy staring at the stuffed dragon that Draco had lowered back onto the table that he failed to notice Draco's grin. Suffice it to say, he was a little stunned to find his arms full of blonde Slytherin not moments after the toy had been set on the table. He fell backwards on the couch with a grunt, arms instinctively wrapping around Draco's waist.

"Harry!" Draco cried, raining kisses down on his face. "That's so cute!"

Harry smiled in relief and kissed Draco back. "Glad to hear it!"

Draco kissed him again, the food and smiling little dragon forgotten, for the moment.


	3. Quiet

**Disclaimer:** Everything belongs to JKR, I'm only borrowing for a while.

**AN:** Written for the prompt "quiet, Harry/Pansy" given to me by chanteur_dombre over at lumos_main on LJ.

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It started the day she sat down beside him in the library. He stared at her as she opened her Transfigurations book and began to do her homework. After a few minutes of him just staring, and her doing homework, Harry frowned slightly, but went back to his own homework. When he finished, he packed up his things, stood – hesitated only a moment as he gazed down at the top of her head bent over her parchment, and left.

A week later found him back in the library. It was only fifteen minutes before she arrived and silently repeated her routine from the week before. This time, she was the one to leave first, though unlike before, when she had ignored him leaving, Harry watched. She shouldered her bag, and left with a small smile.

The third time it happened, Harry wasn't surprised and gave her a small nod in greeting. This time when he left, she gave him a smile and a wave before bending back over her work. They engaged in these quiet little homework sessions six more times – but Harry wasn't counting.

The next couple trips to the library saw Harry alone, though, and he wondered if she had given up whatever plan she had been trying. Maybe she thought whatever it was she was attempting was taking too long. He didn't go back to the library for three weeks.

His potions essay saw fit to drive him back to the quiet stacks, though. Books were strewn around him, his hair was tousled, and he had ink stains on his fingers and cheeks. Harry's head was in his hands in despair when she arrived. He jerked when she sat down beside him this time, rather than across from him, and he just stared at her as she calmly took his quill and parchment from him. She smiled softly at him, and quietly began to explain just why powdered bicorn horn and crushed lemon balm could not be used together in a potion. This was the first time she had talked during these meetings; so Harry talked back.

Soon, they began meeting outside the library; she would find him when he went for walks around the lake, when he ate lunch outside alone, or when he went to the Quidditch pitch just to fly and enjoy the cool winter air and bright sun. It took a while, but soon they were talking like they had always been friends. It started with discussing homework, then school, friends, teachers, Christmas hols, summers at home, politics and the war. She wasn't anything like he had expected; quieter than he had thought, less hostile than he remembered, less the simpering follower.

Christmas hols arrived, and Harry stayed at Hogwarts as usual while she went home. They exchanged a couple letters, but it was when she arrived in the library their first week back, all large smiles and stories about her holiday that Harry realized how much he had missed her stories, her wit, her intelligence, how much he had missed _her_. It took four more library visits, three flights around the Quidditch pitch, two walks around the lake, and one snowball fight before he kissed her, her cheeks red from the cold, her eyes sparkling with laughter and snow in her hair. She looked stunned for a moment before she smiled, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him back.

It took a month for Ron to talk to him again after Harry told him he was going out with a Slytherin, a month and a half before Malfoy stopped threatening her, pleading with her about how she could choose Potter, of all people, over him, and two months before everyone realized just how serious Harry was about this, how serious he was about her.

By May, they were both surrounded by friends. They sat cuddled on a couch in Gryffindor, talking and laughing, they played chess in Slytherin, talking politics and slowly, so slowly, changing prejudices. They loved it all. But every so often they could both be found sitting at a table in a back corner of the library, across from each other and focussed on homework, not speaking, but content with each other and with the quiet that reminded Harry, that when Pansy had sat down across from him that day in September and he didn't leave, that he had made the right choice in staying after all.


	4. Things Better Left Lost

**Disclaimer:** Everything belongs to JKR, I'm only borrowing for a while.

**AN:** Written for a contest over at lumos_main on LJ. Prompt was to write a crack!fic around 300 words using a hedgehog, argyle socks, and a pink, frilly dress.

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It started off innocently enough.

"Hermione?"

"Mmm?"

"What...is that?"

"What is _what_ Ronald?"

"That...brown ball thing by your elbow."

"...I do believe it is a hedgehog."

"A hedgehog?"

"Yes. I assume one of the younger years was practicing their transfigurations. Honestly, Ron, your face will stick like that if you're not careful. The thing isn't hurting me, leave it alone."

So, he left it alone. He forgot about it after a while, but soon, they were popping up everywhere. Lamps went missing, and in their place were rolled up prickly hedgehogs. Some cushions disappeared, a few rugs. An end table, and numerous quills, parchments, chocolate frogs, you name it. Eventually, clothes started going missing, even Harry's special pink, frilly dre...er, invisibility cloak (and he was _not_ best pleased about that, let me tell you, though Ron was secretly relieved, since he didn't really want to know what Harry needed that dress, I mean, cloak, for anyway), and hedgehogs were suddenly living in trunks and under beds. But, Hermione told him not to worry (repeatedly) and so he didn't. Until he just couldn't look the other way anymore.

"That is IT! Who the bloody hell is this...this...in love with hedgehogs that they needed to steal my yellow ducky argyle socks and transfigure them?!"

Ron felt his face heating up as, since he'd quite forgotten it was early, and others were around, the common room went silent.

"Ahh...well, then. Never mind really, don't know what came over me. Carry on."

Turning, he quickly disappeared up the boys staircase and into his dorm.

Down in the common room, Hermione smiled slightly and flicked her wand. Abruptly, lamps, cushions, rugs, (pink, frilly dresses, ummm, cloak, which relieved Harry to no end. He had plans that night) and other lost items were back in their rightful places (except for one lone hedgehog that Ron soon found himself becoming quite fond of).

She had really hated those socks.


End file.
